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Middle East conflict

Brazilian president won’t apologize to Israel — advisor

"We have always treated each other with great respect and defended the idea of a two-state solution, but there is nothing to apologize for," Celso Amorim pointed out

RIO DE JANEIRO, February 19. /TASS/. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will not apologize to Israel after comparing the Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip to the crimes of Adolf Hitler, said Celso Amorim, the president’s envoy for foreign affairs.

"We have always treated each other with great respect and defended the idea of a two-state solution, but there is nothing to apologize for. Israel is putting itself in the conditions of increasing isolation," CNN Brasil quoted him as saying.

On February 19, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared the Brazilian president persona non grata until he apologized and retracted his comparison of Israel to Hitler's Germany.

Lula da Silva said on February 18 that the massacres of civilians resulting from Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip could be compared to Hitler's crimes against the Jews. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement the same day, saying "the Brazilian president's remarks are shameful and serious." He also said "to compare Israel's actions to the Holocaust and Hitler is to cross a red line" and announced that he had decided, together with Foreign Minister Israel Katz, to immediately summon the Brazilian ambassador to Israel for a stern representation.

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Middle East conflict

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